The quarterback position is forever the most debated in American football and perhaps more so in Europe with the regular changing of rosters year by year.
This season in the European League of Football we have possibly the most competitive top five in the position in the league’s short history. ELF analysts, Silas Nacita and Nick Alfieri revealed their top five in the position, so it’s only right that, as an ELF analyst for American Football International, I give my own.
Naturally, the quarterback ranking from 8-5 is going to be the most contested among fans. Many wanted to see Jakeb Sullivan of the Berlin Thunder mentioned during the ELF live show. Another favorite of AFI’s analyst, Alex Machow, is Ben Holmes of the Vienna Vikings.
Others have seen D’Angelo Fulford’s domination of Division Two football and praised the Raiders Tirol for signing him. Spoiler alert: None of these have cracked the top five of any of the three top five lists presented. This just speaks to the quality of the European League of Football in 2024. It is important to note that a top-five quarterback list is an extremely difficult selection process because of the supporting cast around the players. Alfieri pointed out that Levi Lewis of the Barcelona Dragons was one of the most talented athletes at the position, which is true but will have less statistical impact because the quality of the Dragons is lower than the rest of the league save a couple of teams.
So, does he make the top five based on his talent levels? Or is it going to be based on production where someone like Ben Holmes or Steven Duncan will benefit from being on a strong title contender with more weapons around them? For this ranking it had to be a little bit of both, who can compete with the best in the league, but also who can use their weapons effectively? We have seen quarterbacks in this league who we thought would be stars not be able to perform, on the other side of the coin, we have seen a fair share of players break out after being given a second chance or a change of scenery. There is also an air of “what have you shown me?” where, naturally, if there is more tape to hand rather than just college statistics they’re bound to be higher up. This is the reasoning for lower rankings on players such as Fulford (Raiders Tirol) and Ben Holmes (Vienna Vikings) the reality is, they haven’t played much in the last few years. Which makes it incredibly hard to grade them.
These are questions that will have to be examined for all future instalments. This is going to be a highly contested topic from now until the end of the season. But for now, let’s find out how rank the Top 5 QBs in the ELF.